Buk missile system – the same type that was used to shoot down MH17 – is spotted in Ukraine

A Russian Buk missile system – the same type that was used to shoot down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 – has been spotted in Ukraine.  

The sighting, which came through the night as the Russian-Ukrainian war entered a second day, is a chilling reminder of the disaster that claimed 298 lives, including 80 children in July 2014. 

The radar-guided surface-to-air missile system was filmed driving through Kherson in southern Ukraine, 93 miles (150km) from the Crimean peninsula. 

It comes hours after the Ukrainian government a Russian jet had been shot down by a surface-to-air missile and as the capital came under fierce bombardment in the early hours of Friday as Vladimir Putin’s tanks moved to within 20 miles of Kyiv.

American intelligence reports late on Thursday said the days attacks were only the ‘initial phase’ of an invasion and that the majority of Russia’s 190,000 troops at the front remained in reserve, sparking fears the Buk missile system could be involved in a second assault. 

Putin personally gave the order to attack around 5am on Thursday, unleashing a salvo of rocket fire that US intelligence said involved more than 100 short and medium-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles, and 75 bombers that targeted military sites including barracks, warehouses and airfields in order to knock out the country’s military command structure.   

A Russian Buk missile system – the same type that was used to shoot down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 – has been spotted in Ukraine 

Flight MH17 (pictured, the wreckage in a village near Donetsk) was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 by a BUK missile while on its way to Kuala Lumpar from Amsterdam

The footage emerged hours after Ukrainian officials said a Russian jet had been shot down over the capital, Kyiv. 

Pictures of a shouldering wreckage of what appeared to be the plane were seen in the capital while video showed flaming debris falling from the sky after the jet was hit by a missile. 

Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashenko shared footage on social media of a blaze in what he said was the Darnitsky district of Kyiv, in the southeast of the city on the left bank of the Dnipro river.

It was unclear whether the Darnitsky fire was caused by the downed Ukrainian jet, or the Russian missiles. 

Smoldering wreckage of a Russian jet is seen in Kyiv on Friday morning

The jet landed in Kyiv, shot down by a Ukrainian missile

Flight MH17, a Boeing 777, was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 by a BUK missile while on its way to Kuala Lumpar from Amsterdam.  

To date, 296 of the dead have been identified with remains not found for only two passengers. 

MH17 left Schiphol Airport at 12:31pm local time before flying east over Germany and Poland. It altered its course to fly over Ukraine to avoid possible thunderstorms.

It had only been three hours into a 12-hour flight when it was shot down over Ukraine which was in the middle of a war that left more than 13,000 people dead. 

The last words heard from the crew was a response to a Ukrainian flight controller as they repeated the coordinates ‘ROMEO NOVEMBER DELTA, Malaysian one seven’.

In the two days before flight MH17 was downed, two Ukrainian military planes were also shot down in the area.

Ukraine had closed its airspace to civilian travel below 32,000ft and the Dutch Safety Board confirmed that 160 airliners had crossed above this threshold that day.  

Flight MH17, a Boeing 777, was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 by a BUK missile while on its way to Kuala Lumpar from Amsterdam (pictured, the wreckage in Hrabove, east of Donetsk)

MH17 (pictured, the wreckage) left Schiphol Airport at 12:31pm local time before flying east over Germany and Poland. It altered its course to fly over Ukraine to avoid possible thunderstorms